The 16 Most Viral Fake Photos & Videos of 2019

ByCraig Haley

2019 was another busy year on the fake photo (and video) front. So we’ve compiled the most popular that circulated the Internet during the year.

Each of these fake photos or videos were given such a label either because they have been digitally manipulated or because they circulated online with a false or misleading description attached to them.

See our fake photos 2018 article here.
Hat tip to @HoaxEye for their help with this article.

Hurricane Dolphins

Plenty of fake photos spread online during hurricane season in the United States. While many show miscaptioned evacuation photos, this image took things a big further by claiming to show the moment that dolphins were seen caught in the strong winds of Hurricane Dorian and flown across beaches. However, the images are all fake.

Hurricane Dorian over Miami

Another viral Hurricane Dorian photo claims to show the large storm approaching Miami (or some other versions claim the Bahamas.) The photo, however, is another fake since we found the original photo of the landscape of Miami (sans the hurricane) on a stock image website.


Sponsored Content. Continued below...




The Blue Whale Photo

One of the most viral photos of 2019 was this image of a blue whale and its calf swimming underneath a bridge. However the photo was fake, since blue whales – while very big – are not quite that big. Both the whale and its calf had been superimposed onto the image of the bridge.

 

National Geographic’s Fake Milky Way

You wouldn’t expect the highly regarded National Geographic to be a creator and proliferator of fake images, but in April 2019 that’s exactly what happened when the publication posted the above image showing one of the world’s oldest trees lit up by the Milky Way in Botswana. However the image drew credulity from the social media community who noticed that areas of the sky had been duplicated (cloned) using digital software like Photoshop. The photo was later pulled down, and the photographer later apologised, citing issues with stitching different images together as the cause.

Oil Tanker and Plane near miss

A video claiming to show an oil tanker drive in front of a landing plane in a failed terrorist attack does indeed show an oil tanker driving in front of a landing plane… from a video game. Yes, the video was lifted straight from the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, and as such isn’t real.

CCTV footage of attempted armed robbery

This video spread virally on Twitter and claimed to show two shoplifters foil an attempted armed robbery in a convenience store. While the footage was certainly dramatic, it wasn’t real. It was filmed for a Facebook Watch series called Five Points.


Sponsored Content. Continued below...




Melted Cars

The above image circulated social media prolifically during June 2019 claiming to show the effects of a heatwave in Kuwait or Arizona, depending on the variant you saw. However it wasn’t heat from the sun that caused the damage, it was the damage from a nearby fire caused by an explosion.

 

EU protesters burning Union Flag

Brexit was a key story throughout 2019, so it was inevitable that a few fake EU related photos were going to be rather popular. This photo showing pro-EU protesters outside Downing Street had the burning Union Flag digitally imposed onto it.

Elise Stefanik’s middle finger

Another big story in 2019 was of course President Donald Trump’s impeachment, which led to this viral photo spreading on social media that appears to show Congresswoman Stefanik giving TV cameras a middle finger salute during a break in one of the many House Congressional hearings that preceded the impeachment vote. However, the image had been faked.

The Fake Litter Photos

This photo circulated only hours after high profile environmental protests in London’s Hyde Park, along with the caption that is depicted the high volumes of litter left by Extinction Rebellion protesters. However it did not, since the litter had been left in Hyde Park by a pro-cannabis legalisation group that meet annually every April.

However this didn’t stop the photo spreading virally a number of times during 2019 after various environmental protests in the UK, Australia and the US.

 

Gryo Drop

This terrifying ride spread across Twitter during June 2019 but not all is at it seems. While the ride itself is genuine, the death defying Gyro Drop has actually been digitally modified to make it appear much more terrifying than it actually is.

Wild Amusement Ride

And another wild amusement ride went viral again in 2019 showing a death defying ride that span people around at incredibly fast speeds, but it was just a CGI video called the ‘Centrifuge Brain Project’. Some of the video had spread out of context and social media users began to believe it was a real amusement ride.

The Real Fast and Furious

This video that shows a car evading police by driving underneath a semi-trailer truck which spread virally across Instagram looks like a stunt from one of the Fast & Furious movies, and while it wasn’t from one of those movies, it also wasn’t real either. It was a CGI video by designer Dionisis Sakas for the 2NCS social media channel. 

Camera in Vlogger’s arm

Popular YouTube vlogger Jake Paul started a viral rumour when he posted a video to his millions of followers showing him getting a digital video camera surgically inserted into his arm. So convincing were the graphics (at least, to some) that many believed he did actually get the operation done. He didn’t.

A lion’s revenge

A viral video claims to show the moment a lion got revenge on two trophy hunters as they posed with a lion they had apparently just shot. However, the video was not real and the “attack” had been digitally created, and the original footage of the dead lion and attacking lion were both found elsewhere online.

The Camel Photo

A viral hoax claimed being able to spot a camel in a collage of other animals would help in diagnosing Alzheimer’s. However the claims were false and has been dismissed by the Alzheimer’s Society. The camel had been digitally added to the collage.

Keep up-to-date with all our latest articles. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Continued below...


Thanks for reading! But before you go… as part of our latest series of articles on how to earn a little extra cash using the Internet (without getting scammed) we have been looking into how you can earn gift vouchers (like Amazon vouchers) using reward-per-action websites such as SwagBucks. If you are interested we even have our own sign-up code to get you started. Want to learn more? We discuss it here. (Or you can just sign-up here and use code Nonsense70SB when registering.)

Become a Facebook Supporter. For 0.99p (~$1.30) a month you can become a Facebook fan, meaning you get an optional Supporter Badge when you comment on our Facebook posts, as well as discounts on our merchandise. You can subscribe here (cancel anytime.)